Development Update #42 – The Answer To Everything

Hey everyone! It’s time for the weekly development update and we have so much stuff to show! Starting us off, the blues is back in town and has brought a new character, who is a guy with a balloon for a head. He’s called Balloonhead.

He’s from the tutorial scene of Mississippi Blues and has a sweet ride, which Mack has an eye on (I’m back, baby!). To call the car his own, Mack has to duel Balloonhead, which introduces the player to the gameplay mechanic. And here is how that looks:

Duel Mechanic

The basic concept is a rhythm game, and different buttons are responsible for different parts of the rhythm. So, for example, the dots move from right to left and whenever a red dot is in the middle if the queue, the player has to press x (or whatever button is mapped to it). Our friend Balloonhead really loves music and when Mack is able to stay on the beat, he becomes a very happy dude.

Ballonhead Reaction

When you first meet the guy, you could think he’s had a run-in with Tom Brady, but, as a matter of fact, a little music goes a long way here and with the right timing, you can help inflate his ego. These are the stages of the animation.

BalloonHead Animation

And since we’ve even had someone call him out on Facebook, Stamm had to deliver, of course. Development blog, thine GIFmeister hath returned.

GIFmeister
noun

German for: Master of GIFs

I jest. No time to lose, we have more to show!

Step 1: Have Warranty

As promised, we have more panels from the intro cutscene of On Rusty Trails. After the realization hits Elvis, he will now make his way to Spike City to find whoever is responsible for refunds and claim his new house.

Step 2: Find Refund Office

There must be a place, where some clerk robots deal with all the warranty claims. On the other hand, if you can remember all the propaganda billboards from earlier blogs, I am not so sure, if the Spike society is too keen on robots filing these kinds of claims. Must look bad on the productivity plans.

Step 3: ???

Stamm has promised two panels per week, and so I am basically forced again to meme my way out of this conundrum. Every blog gets the writer it deserves.

PROFIT!!!

We’ve started the closed beta test and Jones is shedding a tear, every time someone breaks the game. Sweet, sweet programmer’s tears. Catch enough of them and you can brew a mighty tincture, which we all know from this famous movie!

Finally, an announcement for Blown Away. As it is the first game we have an official Chinese localization for, we are celebrating the Chinese New Year with a discount by dropping it one price tier on the stores. The discount will last a week, until February 13th. So if you have not yet snagged the game (you read the blog, so you must have, because you’re awesome): here is your chance!

Chinese New Year Discount

That’s it for this week. Make sure to check back on the blog next Sunday, as I hope I have redeemed myself from last week’s black hole of writer’s block.